Challenge
CBD is a booming industry and is poised to become even bigger as the federal government weighs the legalization of cannabis nation-wide. Autonomy Skin is a premium hair and body brand which used Shopify for months before deciding that the rigid layouts and lack of easy editing options warranted a switch to something else.
Solution
We suggested Webflow and after an initial proof of concept, they were ready to dive in. Shopify and Webflow are very comparable with only some very minor differences. The fees are equal, the back-end is fairly similar and the features match to the letter. The only major difference is user log-ins which is said to be in development with Webflow. That being said, CBD offers some interesting challenges since many payment processors have not allowed CBD products to be sold through them yet. This will change in 2021 experts say, but for now we had to avoid the main two, PayPal and Stripe to favor Square with plans to switch over when PayPal was accepting of CBD. The one thing that Webflow has over Shopify is style. That is not necessarily what most clients think of when looking into eCommerce planforms, but its the main reason a customer will choose one online storefront over another. With unlimited design potential (Webflow being a literal blank sleight), their photographers and brand designers we're able be as creative with us as they liked. We would love to take credit for the stunning pictures, but we only provided the layout and functionality in that regard, the beautiful photos were all thanks to their brilliant staff. Developer Notes: The overall look and design of the site was a joint collaboration between the brand designers and photographers with Autonomy as well as our developers. The soft colors and tropical theme relay a natural aesthetics which goes hand in hand with their ethically-sourced ingredients. We had a fair bit of fun programming product variants so the pictures changed with each different option selected. It was our intention that every picture have a place and the product pages feel fully interactive. There are also a bunch of new features planned. Thanks to Webflow we are able to build the website in stages based on where the company is. The original version of the website lacked blogging functionality, but it was easily implemented when they were ready to start providing content. The same goes for the Instagram feed, product demo videos as well as product reviews which are not standard through core Webflow. Additionally, we had to write CSS to ensure the payments could go through Stripe over PayPal while we wait for CBD compliance.
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